NMMC Cancer Care

Cancer treatment at North Mississippi Medical Center is more personalized, cutting-edge and comprehensive than ever. The links on the left provide more detailed information about our services and locations.

Our comprehensive treatment plans can now include:

Stereotactic Radiosurgery
NMMC Cancer Care has taken great strides in treating brain tumors with the addition of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Traditionally, brain tumors have been treated using whole-brain radiation. SRS achieves higher control rates using higher radiation doses, while maintaining fewer side effects by targeting the treatment to spare healthy brain tissue.
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is also an option for some lung and liver cancers.

Genetic Counseling Services
Genetics determine your eye color, hair color, height and other physical traits. However, your genes can also predict whether you’ll be more likely to get certain types of cancer.

NMMC Cancer Care offers a genetic services consultant for:

Patients who have been diagnosed with cancer that has a strong genetic link. For example, a breast, ovarian or colon cancer patient who has a family member with a similar cancer diagnosis.

Close family members of breast, ovarian or colon cancer patients, particularly when those patients were diagnosed before age 50 and there are multiple cases in the family.

Y-90 for Liver Cancer
For patients who have liver cancer, or cancer that has metastasized into the liver from elsewhere in the body, radioembolization is an outpatient treatment option available at NMMC.

Radioembolization, or Y-90, is a minimally invasive treatment that uses tiny radioactive beads, called microspheres, to deliver radiation directly to cancerous tumors in the liver. The beads, which measure about one-third the diameter of a human hair, are placed directly inside the tumor. Over a period of 10 to 12 days, the beads emit high dose radiation, causing the tumor to shrink. Y-90 is used to treat liver cancer that cannot be removed with surgery. It has the potential to shrink tumors or downstage them, so a patient would be eligible for other treatments. Radioembolization has been shown to help liver cancer patients live longer with an improved quality of life.

Nipple-sparing Mastectomy
Some NMMC surgeons now use a surgical technique for breast cancer that conserves the patient’s nipple areola complex and breast skin.
After reconstruction, the results look much more like the patient’s own breast. The scar is hidden in a smaller incision under the breast, instead of the traditional rainbow-shaped incision across the top of the breast. This technique, which helps with recovery and tissue conservation, is possible with the use of a special lighted retractor and a plasma blade. This blade also makes it possible to do a sentinel node biopsy through the same incision.

NMMC is an associate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System Cancer Community Network. NMMC is the only UAB Health System Cancer Community Network associate in north Mississippi.
The UAB Health System Cancer Community Network was created to enhance cancer services in the Southeast by joining forces with community cancer centers to pursue high-quality patient outcomes, improve access to early detection and treatment, and provide optimal patient satisfaction. The program emphasizes collaboration between UAB and community cancer centers on evidence-based guidelines for cancer treatment.
The association will give patients the added benefit of physicians and multidisciplinary teams collaborating with UAB physicians to pursue the highest quality of care, as well as enhanced access to additional cancer consultations, screenings and information on the latest clinical trials available.

TrueBeam
NMMC Cancer Care uses the TrueBeam linear accelerator system, an innovative system that enables radiation oncologists to treat even challenging cases with unprecedented speed and precision.
Simple treatments that once took 15 minutes or more can be completed in less than two once the patient is in position.
For lung and other tumors subject to motion when the patient breathes, TrueBeam offers gated RapidArc radiotherapy, which makes it possible to monitor and compensate for breathing while quickly delivering treatment.

Cancer Patient Navigators
Patient navigators act as an advocate for newly-diagnosed cancer patients. The navigators will assist patients in accessing referrals and resources that meet his or her individual needs, and will follow a patient through the continuum of care and treatment to help ensure the patient’s needs are being met. The navigator works with all members of the cancer team to coordinate care. Patient navigators are currently provided for breast, lung and colorectal cancer patients.

Tumor Conferences
Fighting cancer takes a team of health care providers – surgeons, pathologists, radiologists, medical and radiation oncologists, nurses, technicians and more. NMMC holds weekly cancer conferences, including dedicated breast, lung and colorectal cancer conferences, where each new cancer diagnosis is reviewed by a multidisciplinary group of physicians and other health care professionals. The team communicates about every patient so that the treatment plan is individualized and takes into account all the clinical viewpoints.

Counseling Services
Counseling helps people respond to their mixed emotions about life’s challenges in healthy ways. Counselors cannot always solve problems, but they provide a safe place for people with cancer to talk about their concerns. NMMC Cancer Care offers counseling services to help patients learn ways to cope, manage depression or anxiety related to diagnosis or change in prognosis, learn to communicate with the health care team and talk about any other concerns.

Accreditations/RecognitionBreast Imaging Center of Excellence

The NMMC Breast Care Center has been designated a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology (ACR) for earning accreditation in mammography, stereotactic breast biopsy, breast MRI and breast ultrasound (including ultrasound-guided breast biopsy).

NMMC Cancer Registry Gold Certification
The NMMC Cancer Registry was awarded the Gold Certification by the Mississippi Cancer Registry, which recognizes hospitals for the submission of timely, complete and high quality data to the Mississippi Cancer Registry.